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Police bust scam ring in Chiang Rai

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CHIANG RAI: Officers from Provincial Police Region 5 and Immigration Bureau have arrested a Chinese national and 12 accomplices for online scam charges.

Pol Lt Gen Piya Tawichai, Provincial Police Region 5 commissioner, said yesterday the arrest followed a tip-off about a gang of scammers operating in Chiang Rai city.

Armed with a search warrant issued by Chiang Rai Provincial Court on Saturday, the police joined forces with immigration police to raid a commercial building in tambon Rob Wiang, Muang district the same day, where they found the gang busy scamming victims on their computers.

Police arrested Chu Huaixiang, a Chinese national who was identified as the gang leader along with 12 members of his team, which includes both Thai and Chinese nationals. Police also seized computers found in the building.

Pol Lt Gen Piya said the gang initiated the scam by creating fake profiles on Facebook, using photos of good-looking people taken from the internet as the profile pictures. They set up Facebook groups named Tam Boon Online (“making merit online”) and “Tour Boon” (“travelling and making merit”).

Thai members of the gang would then send Facebook messages to anyone they found on social media. If they get a response, they will continue talking with the victim to gain their trust. After a while, the gang members would trick the victim into making a cash donation and ask the victim to download a mobile application named App.Shaoxiang.cfd.

The application, developed by the gang’s Chinese members, was touted to be an online merit making application. It features pictures of temples in Chiang Rai to create the illusion of legitimacy. However, all the money donated through the app was actually transferred to proxy bank accounts, said the police.

The gang were charged with fraud and inputting fake data into the computer system.

The police will expand their investigations to find out who are behind the proxy bank accounts, in a bid to find other people who are involved with the scam.

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Chinese held over B10bn cyber fraud

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A Chinese couple living in a 67-million-baht house in Bangkok were arrested yesterday for alleged multinational fraud, with damages estimated at 10 billion baht, the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) said.

Shaoxian Su, 31, and his girlfriend Keyi Ye, 25, were taken into custody at their house in the Palazzo Srinakarin housing estate in Prawet district on charges of public fraud and money laundering.

Police from the CCIB impounded 1.5 million baht in cash, the title deeds for the house, ownership documents for four condo apartments in the Sukhumvit area worth a total of 128 million baht, and 14 Bearbrick dolls also found on the premises.

A CCIB spokesman quoted victims as accusing the couple of using fake online profiles to approach them via social media and enticing them into “invest in digital currencies and assets”.

Victims in Bangkok and Prachuap Khiri Khan told police they lost about 35 million baht. About 20,000 similar complaints were filed overseas, including the United States and the UK, which are believed to be linked to the suspects’ network. Total damages are estimated at 10 billion baht.

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SC seeks to transform agri sector via fintech, alternative financing

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Access to finance is critical to agriculture’s future, said SC chairman
Capital market could help Malaysia achieve its food security agenda

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) encourages the broader adoption of financial technology (fintech) in agriculture to help achieve the country’s food security agenda.
SC Chairman Awang Adek Hussin (pic) said access to finance…Continue Reading

Chinese couple arrested for alleged B10bn fraud

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Police outside the couple's luxury Bangkok house during their arrest for international public fraud on Wednesday. (Photo: police)
Police outside the couple’s luxury Bangkok house during their arrest for international public fraud on Wednesday. (Photo: police)

A Chinese couple living in a 67-million-baht house in Bangkok were arrested on Wednesday for alleged multinational fraud, with damage estimated at 10 billion baht, the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau said.

Shaoxian Su, 31, and his girlfriend Keyi Ye, 25, were taken into custody at their house in The Palazzo Srinakarin housing estate, in Prawet district, on Wednesday morning on charges of public fraud and money laundering.

Police from the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) impounded 1.5 million baht in cash, the title deed for their 67-million-baht house,  ownership documents for four condominium apartments in Sukhumvit area worth 128 million baht and 14 Bearbrick dolls also found on the premises.

A CCIB spokesman quoted victims as accusing the couple of using fake online profiles to approach them via social media and enticing them into “investing in digital currencies and assets”. Local victims were in Bangkok and Prachuap Khiri Khan. They told police they lost about 35 million baht to the suspects.

There were about 20,000 similar complaints filed in other countries, including the United States and Britain,  believed linked to the suspects’ network. Total damage was estimated at 10 billion baht.

The couple did not have jobs. They often travelled abroad and had purchased Thailand Elite Cards, which made it easier for them, the CCIB said.

CCIB police also raided nearby luxury houses and impounded more assets they believed were linked to the suspects and their alleged crimes.

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Jennifer Lawrence’s secret filming in Afghanistan

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Jennifer LawrenceGetty Images
By Megha Mohan
Gender and identity correspondent

“You only oppress women,” the young woman says to the Taliban fighter.

“I told you not to talk,” he shouts back, “I will kill you right here!”

“Okay, kill me!” she replies, raising her voice to match his. “You closed schools and universities! It’s better to kill me!”

A camera phone has secretly, and shakily, captured this direct confrontation inside a car between the woman and the militant.

She had just been arrested following a protest and was about to be taken to a holding cell in Kabul.

It is a scene from the documentary Bread and Roses, which explores the day-to-day lives of three women in the weeks following the takeover.

The producer is the Oscar-winning actress, Jennifer Lawrence, who is telling the BBC why this moment in the film is so significant to her.

“My heart was beating so fast watching these women defy the Taliban,” Lawrence says. “You don’t see this side of the story, women fighting back, in the news everyday and it’s an important part of our film, and the stories of these women.”

She says it is devastating to think about the sudden loss of control Afghan women have endured.

“They currently have no autonomy within their country. It is so important for them to be given the opportunity to document their own story, in their own way.”

The film has been made by Excellent Cadaver, the production company Lawrence set up in 2018 with her friend Justine Ciarrocchi.

“This documentary was born out of emotion and necessity,” says Lawrence, who describes feeling helpless and frustrated about what she was seeing on the news.

Ciarrocchi says that Lawrence “had a seismic reaction to the fall of Kabul in 2021 because the circumstances were so dire for women”.

“And she said, ‘We’ve got to give somebody a platform to tell this story in a meaningful way.'”

That somebody was Sahra Mani, a documentary maker who co-founded the independent Kabul production company, Afghan Doc House.

The all women team of documentary Bread and Roses

Excellent Cadavar

Both Lawrence and Ciarrocchi had watched her critically-acclaimed documentary A Thousand Girls Like Me, which profiles a 23-year-old Afghan woman who goes on national television to expose sexual abuse by her father, after being ignored by her family and the police.

Ciarrocchi tracked down Mani, who said that she had already begun a project, following three women in the country as they tried to establish some kind of autonomy in the months following the Taliban takeover, as girls and women were barred from universities and schools.

Mani filmed using covert cameras, and even asked the women to film themselves at safehouses with their friends and families.

Another sequence captures a secret meeting in a windowless basement, off a side street in Kabul. More than a dozen women sit in rows of desks and chairs, arranged like a makeshift classroom. Steam rises from the drinks in their plastic cups.

They do not know each other, but all are from different groups who protested after the Taliban retook Afghanistan in August 2021.

One of the women, a dentist called Zahra, has led the viewer to this secret meeting. When she speaks to the group, she reminisces about wearing high heels and perfume and going to the park with her friends. The women around her smile.

Then a writer named Vahideh starts speaking.

“Women must write their own history,” Vahideh says passionately to the group, to murmurs of agreement. “Women are not properly celebrated around the world.”

Mani was well aware of the challenges of filming in such private and dangerous situations.

“I understand how to deal with difficulties because I am one of them.

“They are not victims,” she says, “they are heroes.”

But getting the balance right between keeping the women safe and telling their story was not easy. She tells the BBC that there were several late-night conversations between her, Ciarrocchi and Lawrence during the production process.

“They were there whenever I faced any issues or problems,” Mani says. “When women unite, everything is possible.”

A woman in a veil holds her hand to her forehead, looking upset.

Sami Murtaza

With Mani and the other women featured now all out of the country, the producers felt comfortable submitting Bread and Roses for wider distribution, starting at Cannes.

Ciarrocchi and Lawrence say their next challenge is to get the film in front of a large audience – not always easy when the story is a snapshot of an ongoing and devastating conflict.

“There’s not an end to this story,” says Lawrence, “and you feel pretty much helpless when thinking about how to do anything about it. It’s a hard thing to market.”

As women executive producers, Ciarrocchi and Lawrence are still in the minority in Hollywood. A 2022 study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film showed that women comprised only 24% of directors, writers and producers in the top-grossing films, a decrease from 2021.

“I think there’s a long, long way to go, but I do feel inspired and positive by the end product when you have more diversity in filmmaking,” says Lawrence. “It’s what people want. The audiences want it.”

Ciarrocchi adds: “That’s why we take the responsibility of Jen’s platform so seriously as a woman who’s giving opportunities to other women… to employ women, to tell women’s stories, to always employ a diverse body of people.”

“That’s also because I am a woman,” replies Lawrence.

“I’m lucky enough to not have the biased idea that women aren’t as good at things!”

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Exchanging views on crypto: Exclusive interview with Coinhako’s co-founder and CEO, Yusho Liu | cryptocurrency, crypto, coinhako, founder, exclusive interview, yusho liu, singapore, digital assets | FinanceAsia

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From the fallout of FTX in November 2022, to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and other US lenders associated with start-up clients, the last few months have been challenging for the crypto industry.

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinhako, however, remains optimistic in terms of its industry outlook as sector participants focus on “rebuilding trust and faith” across the digital asset universe.

Coinhako was conceptualised in 2014 and started off as a bitcoin wallet service for Singaporeans. Today, it is a multi-currency trading platform for cryptocurrencies and is licensed, regulated and headquartered in the city-state.

Receiving its Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in May 2022, the firm is one of nine financial institutions in the market permitted to provide Digital Payment Token (DPT) services.

Confident about Singapore’s future as a Web3 hub, its team wants to play a part in growing the market’s ecosystem. To do so, the company founders recently launched Berru.co, a separate entity that seeks to support Web3 start-ups as they navigate setting up in the city.

In this interview, Coinhako’s co-founder and CEO, Yusho Liu speaks to FinanceAsia about the challenges faced by the crypto industry; the future of Singapore as a digital asset hub; and where exactly the company has its sights set on next.

Excerpts from the interview have been edited for clarity and brevity.

FA: What’s your take on the cryptocurrency market and what developments are you focussed on?

2023 is the year of reset. With the developments of the last few months and bad actors bringing the industry back several steps, we need to rebuild trust and faith in the sector.

Beyond this, we are seeing more regulatory clarity from the likes of the Hong Kong and EU authorities, which paves the way for Asia and Europe to lead when it comes to innovation in the space.

Given that Washington’s current regulatory environment is less hospitable – coupled with the issues faced by the wider US tech industry, it will be challenging for innovation to emerge from the market.

FA: Was Coinhako exposed to any of the US banks that recently collapsed?

We had zero exposure to Silvergate and SVB. We did have some exposure to Signature Bank, but no money parked there. The collapse of these banks has affected many companies but thankfully, our strongest banking relationships are based in Asia.

FA: Is Coinhako looking to raise funds to expand further? How do you view the fundraising environment?

Overall, global and regional venture capital (VC) firms have poured record amounts of money into Southeast Asian technology companies because they consider them to be at the next frontier of growth and these countries have shown very high rates of adoption and interest in digital assets. They have focussed less on companies based in more mature, traditional markets, such as the US, Europe, China, South Korea or Japan.

However, it is currently a challenging climate and investments into crypto start-ups or in the broader technology space have slowed down. While we are continuing conversations with investors, we do not think this is the right timing or environment in which to be actively fundraising.

FA: Do you have any expansion plans?

We do have plans to expand, but this year our focus is on embedding deeper into Singapore, because we think the city-state is going to be a relevant crypto hub, regardless of what the rest of the world is doing.

We see a lot of Web3 founders building a nexus in the market. There is an influx of start-ups looking to establish their presence in Singapore and we’ve set up a separate, professional advisory entity, Berru.co, to support them. Since inception this year, we’ve connected with 10 or more clients and hope to grow this multi-fold further down the road.

Drawing on Coinhako’s experience since entering the market in 2014, we want to help founders navigate the crypto landscape. We’ve done the legwork and we know what works and what doesn’t – whether that be related to finance, accounting, tax or legal considerations. This is in line with Singapore’s status as a hub, and as such, we want to make sure that companies can develop easily. A bad user experience would likely make these founders consider going elsewhere.

FA: Where else in Asia do you see opportunity?

We are watching developments in Hong Kong, with the government having recently come up with a crypto framework to foster growth in the industry. But Hong Kong is just one of the markets we’re looking at for expansion, alongside other countries in Southeast Asian and the broader Asia region.

Coinhako has a domicile-registered licence in Singapore and the beauty of being based here, is that we can use it as a centre from which to reach the rest of the region.

FA: What’s your view on Singapore’s future as a crypto hub, given that many peers have relocated to Dubai?

I’ve always said that time will tell the story.

Dubai was a hot spot when its authorities announced updated licensing frameworks. But I think that, to date, we haven’t really seen or heard much about crypto exchanges moving to the market, except for Bybit, that is trying to establish global headquarters there.

The reality is that Dubai is a regional hub for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), but if you’re trying to establish a global or Asian base, Singapore might be more suitable.

FA: Is Dubai perceived to be friendlier from a regulatory perspective, compared to Singapore?

I think it’s important to differentiate between what people say, versus what people do.

From our perspective, we don’t see many licensed entities going to Dubai, but we’re seeing unlicensed entities go there to try to obtain a licence.

FA: How optimistic are you about the growth of the Web3 and crypto industries in Asia?

We remain optimistic about the growth of the Web3 sector, in general. Yes, the industry is volatile, but most nascent industries are.

Of course, where money is involved, so too will there be bad actors. And indeed, we are seeing more overlap between the tech and finance industries.

However, as long as builders continue to come in to develop purposeful technology and applications – and good people enter the space, we remain positive.
 

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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Can China broker peace in Yemen?

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After nearly a decade of grinding conflict, Yemen looks to be inching toward a peace deal.

Talks between the Houthi movement controlling much of the country’s north and Saudi Arabia, the regional power backing an anti-Houthi coalition in the war, are ongoing and being encouraged by international observers.

On May 1, 2023, the US announced that it had sent Special Envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking to the Persian Gulf to “advance ongoing efforts to secure a new agreement and launch a comprehensive peace process.”

But the US has far less of a role in steering negotiations than Washington’s great global rival: China. The recent breakthrough in Yemen has been undergirded by a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, facilitated by Beijing in March 2023.

As an academic who specializes in US and Chinese strategic engagement across eastern Africa and the Middle East, I appreciate that the diplomatic breakthrough brokered by Beijing has implications for the region. It has the potential to reduce rivalries and strengthen stability in Yemen, along with other countries prone to sectarian violence, including Lebanon and Iraq.

But it has also led to speculation over China’s emergence as a major regional player in the Middle East. The development not only challenges the United States’ long-established dominance in the Gulf, but it also raises questions about Beijing’s strategic agenda and motives.

Fragmentation and regional dynamics

It remains to be seen whether the Saudi-Iran breakthrough might contribute to a lasting peace in Yemen.

But given the role that the rivalry between the regional powers has had in fueling the fighting, international observers have expressed optimism.

The disintegration of Yemen began with the collapse of its central government in 2011 after the Arab Spring uprising. In 2014, the Houthi group, a Shiite militia backed by Iran, took control of the capital, Sanaa, and forced transitional President Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee to Aden.

Hadi’s government struggled to establish itself in Aden and eventually relocated to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he resigned in 2022.

Map: The Conversation CC-BY-ND. Created with Datawrapper

Viewing the Houthis as an Iranian proxy, Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemeni conflict, backing those loyal to Hadi and bombarding Houthi areas from the air. These Saudi-led attacks contributed to a massive humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has resulted in the deaths of at least 377,000 Yemenis, the United Nations projected in 2021, many through indirect causes such as starvation and disease. It has also led to widespread displacement of civilian populations and the breakdown of infrastructure.

The country remains fragmented, with militias controlling separate territories and no functional central government.

China’s path through Saudi Arabia

So where does China come in? Beijing has no formal diplomatic, economic or political ties with any of the numerous militias that currently govern parts of the country. But before 2014, China had a healthy trading and economic relationship with Yemen. According to the World Bank, in 2013 China was Yemen’s second-largest trading partner after Saudi Arabia.

Since 2014, trade between China and Yemen persisted, albeit in a mostly informal manner. Data from the international trade-tracking Observatory of Economic Complexity indicates that China imported US$411 million worth of products, mainly crude oil but also copper, from Yemen in 2021. What remains unclear is which rebel factions have received revenue through the trade.

Meanwhile, China has maintained formal diplomatic and economic ties with Iran, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) – each of which back militias involved in Yemen’s war. In fact, China has been intensifying its economic and political connections with all three regional powers.

In recent years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has visited both the UAE and Saudi Arabia to underscore Beijing’s growing role as a partner in the region. Xi also recently hosted Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during a state visit to China.

What’s to gain from peace?

This expanding relationship with key players in the Yemeni conflict puts China in a unique position as a potential peace broker. Yet uniting the three regional powers around a common peace plan has to date proved difficult.

The UAE can influence Yemeni factions it has provided military and financial support to, including the “Security Belt” forces affiliated with the transitional government. However, the Emiratis’ goals may differ from those seeking a unified, independent Yemen. Since the conflict broke out, the UAE has displayed a tendency to undermine Yemen’s territorial integrity through, for example, taking control of some Yemeni islands, such as Socotra.

Similarly, Iran may be reluctant to accept any peace agreement that would diminish its influence in Yemen. Tehran’s relationship with the Houthis has not been as consistently solid as some outside observers suggest, but ties have grown as a result of the conflict. Should hostilities cease, the Houthis’ military dependence on Iran would decrease, diminishing Iran’s leverage.

Saudi Arabia, of the three, stands to gain the most from peace in Yemen. Cessation of conflict would likely halt Houthi attacks on the kingdom, save the Saudis money and resources dedicated to the Yemeni war, and potentially restore an international reputation tarnished by alleged war crimes in the conflict.

Yemen’s Houthi loyalists chant slogans during a tribal gathering in Sana’a on February 20, 2020. Photo: AFP / Mohammed Hamoud / NurPhoto

To broker peace in Yemen, China would presumably need to concentrate efforts on working with the Saudis.

The Chinese-backed rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran could be a first step to this end. Although no direct mention of Yemen is made in the language of the agreement, it does talk of both sides’ support for “the non-interference in internal affairs of states” and “keenness to exert all efforts towards enhancing regional and international peace and security.”

And since that agreement in March, there has been progress toward peace in Yemen. A Saudi delegation led by the kingdom’s ambassador to Yemen held talks with Houthi leaders in Sanaa on April 9. The talks were the first direct negotiations between the two sides on Yemeni soil since the war began in 2015.

The thinking in Beijing

But why is China invested in what happens in an ongoing conflict far from its borders – especially when it is already consumed with perceived strategic and military threats closer to home?

The argument that a cessation of hostilities in Yemen would grant China economic benefits by providing access to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait – a key strategic channel on the Arabian peninsula for commerce and trade, with an estimated 4% of global oil supply passing through it – ignores some critical factors.

Rebuilding a war-shattered Yemen and establishing a stable government may take time – and the investment required to do so might outweigh short-term economic gains.

Moreover, China already has a military base in Djibouti, giving it access to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait even without peace in Yemen.

It could be that China is seeking to be seen as a global peacemaker as part of a strategy that has been referred to as “diplomatic whitewashing” – that is, making friends overseas and playing the “nice guy” to distract from China’s treatment of its Uighur minority at home and Xi’s increasingly confrontational posture on Taiwan and the South China Sea.

But it also fits a wider geopolitical trend. The counterbalance to China’s growing role in the Middle East is the declining influence of the United States in the region.

Priorities in Washington have shifted to strategic concerns in East Asia and Ukraine, leading to a diplomatic opportunity for China – one Beijing is seemingly keen to exploit.

Meanwhile, US relations with Saudi Arabia have cooled, in part due to the Yemeni war. And Washington has had no formal diplomatic relations with Iran for decades.

As a neutral player, China can engage with Tehran and Riyadh in a way the US simply cannot. That was evident in China’s role in the rapprochement, and it could be the case in resolving Yemen’s war.

For China, it provides opportunities for another diplomatic success from which it could emerge as a reliable partner in a changing geopolitical landscape.

Mahad Darar is a PhD student of political science, Colorado State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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New Qantas chief can’t charge sky-high prices forever

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After the epidemic and border closures shuttered much of the regional aviation industry in 2020, Vanessa Hudson will take over as CEO of Qantas Airlines in November. She inherits a company that is still having trouble getting back to operations.

The good news for Qantas is that it can impose higher tickets because of the airline’s increased demand for air travel. In the second half of 2022, it even managed to report a profit ofA$ 1.43 billion( US$ 963 million ).

But these circumstances didn’t persist. As Hudson, an officer who joined Qantas in 1994 and has been the company’s general business officer since 2018, deals with the extremely different short-term difficulties that come with recovery, she did increasingly need to focus on all the long-standing problems that existed for the Australian flagship airline prior to 2020.

Demand for air travel is recovering more quickly than provide for two main reasons.

The first is the time and effort required to return to service the plane that were parked at nearby interior airports and aircraft storage facilities during the pandemic. About 100 of Qantas’ 126 aircraft were put into storage, six aging Boeing 747s were retired, and the delivery of the new Airbus A321neo and Boeing 77 – 9 aircraft was postponed.

Airlines have never had to hold this numerous aircraft in the history of civil aircraft. Restoring them to support necessitates thorough construction inspections and tests. Just a small number of skilled protection personnel can prepare so many aircraft to resume flight.

Which brings up the second, more crucial problem: the need to replace positions.

The economy was dealing with a global lack of skilled aircraft even before the pandemic. Since borders were closed in 2020, it has been struggling to replace every employee, including the air and ground crowd.

Nearly a third of Qantas’ 30, 000 individuals were fired, including nearly 2, 000 ground crew members who were forced to retrench illegally. By the end of 2024, it hopes to hire almost 2,000 people, with a number of 8,500 by the year’s side.

A Qantas plane parked at Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California, in December 2022.
In December 2022, a Qantas aircraft was parked at Victorville, California’s Southern California Logistics Airport. a flickr

Most people who have found work in various fields are never coming back. Some in the field worry that air is no longer a desirable profession. Additionally, all of the aircraft, flight technicians, and technicians who are being re-employed need refresher training before being allowed to work.

The whole air offer chain, including producers, is being impacted by labor shortages. On different aircraft shipments, Qantas is currently experiencing difficulties of around six months.

vying for clients

As Qantas struggles to keep up with demand, competition for clients will be a fairly small issue. However, this won’t take as airlines expand their ships and the current high cost of air travel starts to drop. For instance, at the end of 2022, tickets in the US market returned to their pre-pandemic quantities( in inflation-adjusted terms ).

I anticipate that Qantas may be dealing with many of the same competitive pressures that motivated its pre-pandemic cost-cutting and outsourcing by the end of 2023 or original 2024. It is partially attribute this to the service provided by the global government to airlines, which had the unfortunate side effect of fewer flight falls in 2020 than in 2018 or 2019.

While Qantas made a return for every year between 2015 and 2019, profit margins were very slim.

There is a lot of discussion about how the crisis permanently altered the air travel industry. For instance, company journey might never return. In February 2021, consulting company McKinsey predicted that the post-pandemic competition for business travel may be 20 % smaller.

The problem for Qantas and some airlines will be to arrange and adapt services appropriately while the jury is still deliberating on this issue and others.

In the long run, Qantas needs to lessen its economic impact.

The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation of the International Civil Aviation Organization has established a requirement that all foreign steam ships must set off the carbon emissions associated with airlines starting in 2027.

More often, stricter domestic economic requirements are very good as a result of the drive to decarbonize financial aviation.

Due to the airline’s comprehensive network of moderate and long-haul flights( which use more gasoline ) and aging, less fuel-efficient fleet, this will be more difficult for Qantas than rivals.

Even over 15 years old on average, more than twice as old as competitors like Singapore Airlines. Ships replacement will be a difficult task.

Volodymyr Bilotkach is Associate Professor, Purdue University

Under a Creative Commons license, this story has been republished from The Conversation. Read the original publication.

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Australia taking the measure of China’s cyber vulnerability

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Australia doesn’t need to rush ten or twenty years to launch effective military force against China with its original boats or long-range weapons. It is capable of using its digital forces to attack strategically important Chinese targets right away or to fend off that danger out of deterrence.

Cyberattacks are intended to break up or remove enemy military networks by breaking into their networks. They can be applied to a range of communication and weapon systems. Computer forces are now an essential component of a nation’s ability to strike during times of war. Even today, the United States is preparing to launch cyberattacks against China during a war, if necessary.

According to 2018 statistics, the Americans have a pressure of about 240, 000 protection personnel and contractors on hand to support both cyber defense and digital attack, with up to one-third of them probably available to do so.

These US attacks may be sustained across the complete range of Taiwanese war strength in the event of war. Gaining what is known as” decision dominance” would be the goal. If we can view Admiral Philip Davidson‘s remarks, which were made by the former chief of US Indo-Pacific Command, as a reference to China, this is the” disintegration” of Chinese systems and decision-making,” thereby defeating their offensive abilities.”

Australia has discussed digital act with much more caution than the US, but the two allies are closely allied. According to Project Redspice, which was unveiled last year, Canberra is currently tripling the size of its offensive cyber soldiers.

In the event of war, it was attack military command and control facilities whatsoever in China. Significant national equipment, like the energy network supporting the war effort, may be one of the softer targets.

Compared to the US, Australia’s computer force will continue to be modest. However, like the US, it can also request attack plans against China from corporate domestic or foreign corporations.

Australia wants to have cutting-edge net unpleasant options. Cyber services are carefully coordinated by the AUKUS supporters, and the new grouping places a lot of emphasis on this area of activity.

The certainty of AUKUS has significant ramifications for American security and sovereignty. Twitter, Screengrab, and Agencies

The National Cyber Force, an organization devoted to insulting fire operations, was established by the United Kingdom in 2020.

Australia’s cyber force will probably continue to be the most potent strike force against China for many years as a result of this” cyber three” alliance with the US and UK.

China’s vulnerability in computer protection

Of course, with cyberattacks, performance isn’t guaranteed. However, causing significant gap can be accomplished with a highly concentrated work across all stages of offensive cyber operations, particularly in collaboration with our allies.

The second phase, which involves ensuring up-to-date knowledge on the other side’s systems, is the most crucial. Even though the intelligence personnel aren’t considered to be playing an” offensive” role, the effort put into cyber intelligence against China’s armed forces serves as the basis for cyber offensive teams.

China is skilled at committing online crimes. Contrary to popular belief, China isn’t particularly strong in computer security, which makes it particularly vulnerable to attack during times of war. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, China has a number of fundamental flaws that may take years to address, such as those in its computer security sector, education system, and policy.

In terms of military computer capabilities, Chinese leaders have stated that they think they are far behind the US and its allies. Their decisions regarding starting a war over Taiwan will probably be constrained by this.

social inclinations

Australia shouldn’t be afraid of using this unpleasant power against China for political reasons because China intends to use it against us in the event of battle.

In advance of a serious issue, China is already conducting digital spying on Australia and other nations. It is almost certainly gaining the ability to, if necessary, remove foe military infrastructure and systems.

The long-held belief that Australia is contribute more to allied punishment of potential aggressors the more unpleasant capabilities it has, for example through submarines, was reportedly reiterated by Defense Minister Richard Marles.

The capabilities of Australia’s computer offenses are mostly kept in the dark. Photo: iStock

In the unlikely event of war, American political leaders does give the military’s capacity to attack Chinese targets on a large scale priority. Additionally, leaders must make sure that private digital industries are more potent and that digital forces have more highly skilled personnel assigned to this task.

The Australian Defense Force will also need to reevaluate the defense balance of power in the Asia-Pacific to take into account the US and its allies’ digital superiority over China in order for military and political leaders to proceed down this path more forcefully.

Australians may also feel more secure about potential Chinese military challenges as a result. Foreign leaders’ decisions to incite a crisis may be influenced by their perception that their armed forces aren’t being aggressive in this area of US and military military power.

Greg Austin is Adjunct Professor, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Greg Austin has disclosed no suitable affiliations outside of their educational appointment and does not play for, demand, individual shares in, or get funding from any businesses or organizations that might profit from this article.

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